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Where did emotional tonality lead the way? But then at a certain point you also just want to go with the emotional tonality of what’s required for that scene and whatever character you’re most invested in at that point. Something we talked about early on with the Duffer Brothers was that we’d have these distinctive palettes that immediately orient you when you’re cutting between so many different storylines. As a cinematographer coming onto a show in the 4th season - I’d done the second unit in Season 3, but this was my first time to come on doing the main unit - it was amazing to be able to be establishing all these new looks, working on mood boards and lookbooks for all these new locations that had never been photographed before. This time around in Hawkins, post-mall fire and Billy’s death, we wanted to immediately start off with a more somber version that would then only get darker from there. But by and large, the season was going to be much darker than Season 3, when it was really about vibrant colors, summertime, and neon light. This was all a real contrast to previous seasons, though. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in STRANGER THINGS. Tina Rowden/Netflix © 2022 STRANGER THINGS. David Harbour as Jim Hopper in STRANGER THINGS. It was the one place where we didn’t have this strong color contrast, but we knew we wanted to go a little retro and greenish with the fluorescents, then really pocket it so you still had a lot of contrast and mood. At the complete other end of the spectrum, the Hawkins lab is this fluorescent-lit environment and a little bit more neutral. Whereas at the other end of the spectrum, Russia was going to be very low lit and bleak, with lots of older practical fluorescent units, older tungsten, and sodium-this sort of bluish daylight like you’d get far up north. We wanted California to feel warm and sunny but still have pockets of shadows.
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That being said, we decided to go more handheld this season - all the stuff out at Max’s trailer was handheld inside and outside, which normally would only get used for fight sequences in seasons past.
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I think as far as our lensing goes, that’s a bit more consistency across the locations and across the seasons - the tendency toward using slightly wider focal lengths, seeing more of the space, and having a lot of big camera moves, and camera moves that hinge around space. In terms of lensing and lighting, did you have hard and fast rules to differentiate between them?
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There are so many different settings this season. We had the chance to speak with Caleb Heymann, the season’s cinematographer (he was also on the show’s second unit during Season 3) about using light to capture characters’ rock bottoms, working with the Duffer Brothers’ preference for capturing effects in-camera, and evoking the heightened 1980s nostalgia for which the show is so beloved. It’s an all-around darker season than the three previous, but as the cast disperses to Russia, California, and Martin’s lab, with a core group in Hawkins hard at work defeating Vecna, an evil Upside Down being whose twisted motivations may reveal why he’s so hellbent on killing local teens, the show establishes distinct palettes for its various locations that make visually jumping from place to place seamless. Sam (Paul Reiser) rescues El from juvenile detention (powerless, she thwacks a bully with a roller skate, and no matter your views on teenage violence, the crime does not seem wholly undeserved), but El winds up back in the nightmare facility of her early youth, trapped in her memories, with creepy Papa/Martin (Matthew Modine) running the show. It’s a rough time for everyone, and things only get worse when new, minor teenage characters start spontaneously levitating, right before all their bones twist and break and their eyes transform into bloodied pits.Īnd that’s not even the worst thing. The rest of the gang are still in Hawkins, simultaneously trying to get through high school and the difficulty of daily life literally on top of the Upside Down. The kids are split up, with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Will (Noah Schnapp) living the opposite of a teenage dream out in California. Hopper (David Harbour) is alive but in a Soviet prison. The first seven episodes - the last two are expected in July - of Stranger Things Season 4 go big. * Spoilers below for the first seven episodes of season 4!